Don't Separate Families at the Border, Don't Expropriate the Holocaust

The images emanating from the border are powerful enough to inspire people to act without deploying Holocaust imagery.

As an Orthodox rabbi, it is not for me to comment on U.S. Attorney General Sessions’ invoking the New Testament to justify separating children from parents who were caught trying to illegally enter the U.S. at the Mexican border. Suffice it to say that New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who represents 2.6 million Catholics, called the crackdown “unbiblical.”

Speaking for our constituency at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, we said the following:

“Like millions of Americans on both sides of the political divide, we want our leaders to solve the humanitarian crisis at hand. No matter what the divisions are over immigration policies, it is unacceptable to separate little children from their parents. That isn’t what America stands for. Those are not our values. We urge immediate steps to ameliorate this situation and for the Administration and Congress to finally take the necessary steps to end this problem...”

We are not naïve and know full well that it will take nothing short of a miracle to triangulate the divergent views of Democrats, Republicans, and President Trump and come up with a comprehensive solution to all the issues related to illegal immigration. Now in the midst of the contentious debate, there are some thoughtful legislators who are weighing in to deal with the children caught in the middle.

Without action on immigration, our society will lurch from emotional and incendiary crisis to crisis; sometimes focusing on an innocent child’s wail, sometimes on the sobs of a bereaved family robbed of a loved one by a criminal who never should have been in the United States in the first place.

But there is another victim of the children at the border debate: historic truth. Those entrusted with protecting the memory of 6 million victims of the Nazi Holocaust and teaching lessons from history’s greatest crime, which included the mass murder of 1.5 million Jewish children, are shocked by the wholesale and dishonest expropriation of the symbols and imagery of the Holocaust by critics of the separation of the children at the U.S. border.

For starters, Wikipedia now includes the detention centers where they are held in the article about Concentration and Internment camps. Social media has been abuzz with comparisons including the Infamous Auschwitz Birkenau Death camp where innocents were beaten, starved, and gassed to death. No one less than former CIA Director Michael Hayden, now a CNN pundit, posted a picture of the entrance to the infamous Auschwitz Death Camp. He later offered an ‘apology’ that read more like gloating for ‘overachieving’ that his cynical manipulation achieved. A more apt lesson for Hayden from that era was the failure of the CIA’s WWII predecessor, the OSS, to do anything to stop or slow down the Nazi genocide of Jews.

Then there was MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough who opened "Morning Joe" last Friday by declaring, “Children are being marched away to showers – just like the Nazis said they were taking people to the showers, and then they never came back. You’d think they would use another trick.”

On Sunday, another cable commentator insisted that, "Increasingly, Donald Trump is turning this nation into Nazi Germany and turning these [detention centers] into concentration camps.”

Social media postings invoked the same imagery and talking points.

For 25 years, our Museum of Tolerance has educated millions of visitors, including 160,000 law enforcement officials about Auschwitz, Anne Frank, and the murder of 1.5 million Jewish children and their families by the Nazi perpetrators of the genocidal “Final Solution.” Visitors also learn about today’s real-time civil and human rights crises and contemporary mass murder and genocide.

But we would never tell a young visitor that every human rights outrage is equivalent to Auschwitz – that is a lie. We can only hope that the depths of its moral depravity will never again be repeated in our world.

Finally, the images emanating from along the Texas border are powerful enough to inspire people to act without deploying Holocaust imagery that demonizes other Americans and debases the memory of 6 million murdered Jews.

U.S. border guards and Homeland Security personnel are not Nazis. Critics should stop slandering them. We live in the world’s greatest democracy. Our elected officials have the tools to fix what’s broken.

Note: This article was written right before President Trump signed an executive order ending the process of separating children from families.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is the Associate Dean, Director Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights organization. Abraham Cooper has been a longtime activist for Jewish and human rights causes. His extensive involvement in Soviet Jewry included visiting refuseniks, helping to open Moscow’s first Jewish Cultural Center, and lecturing at the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Sakharov Foundation. In 1977, he came to L.A. to help Rabbi Marvin Hier found the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and for three decades Rabbi Cooper has overseen the Wiesenthal Center’s international social action agenda including worldwide antisemitism and extremist groups, Nazi crimes, Interfaith Relations, the struggle to thwart the anti-Israel Divestment campaign, and worldwide promotion of tolerance education. Widely recognized as an international authority on issues related to digital hate and the Internet, Rabbi Cooper was listed in 2017 by Newsweek among the top most influential Rabbis in the United States.

I agree that the families shouldn't be separated, and the government should handle this issue better. Some feel that just like Germany saw us as a threat, so too people crossing the border are seen as a threat. The difference is in Germany, the fear is irrational. They just hated us for no reason. Where as in America the threat is real. There is actual crime committed by illegals and people getting hurt by them. Not all of them are like this. Some are good people. Anyway, the government should find a better way to handle this.
Btw, while the Torah says to respect the stranger, G-d first wants us to protect our ourselves and families. Yes, help the stranger, but also be careful. For instance, look at what is going on in Europe. They have brought in lots of Refugees from the Middle East. And Murder has gone way up. Again, Not all illegals like this. And t he should find a better way to do things

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Ruben Briones,
June 27, 2018 4:52 PM

Don't Separate Families at the Border

The main subject is that Mexican people want to work. it is true that there is bad as well as good mexican people but that has existed in anywhere of the world... Trump needs to be wiser for solving this bad situation. He must not take actions as an insane person.God has blessed America and they have abused for this good moments that they are living.

(18)
JJ Levin,
June 24, 2018 10:15 PM

Where have all the Rabbis Gone?

Rabbi Cooper instead of condemning the administration’s critics, why don’t you and other Rabbis speak out about the inhumanity perpetrated by Trump. Isn’t in the Torah you have to have Justice with Mercy and to treat Strangers with Kindness, Love your neighbor...Where are the Rabbis? Hiding? Yes, ripping infants and children out of their parents arms did remind Me of the Gestapo. What did it remind you of?

jake,
June 25, 2018 9:05 AM

the rabbi DID speak out

This rabbi DID speak against what is happening, in no uncertain terms. as did the OU and Agudas Yisrael. Rabbi Cooper also made another important point -- that you also seemed to have missed. The American government is not the Gestapo, and people need to discern things more carefully and not make false comparisons to the Holocaust and genocide.

(17)
Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 9:50 PM

Where is the rachmones?

I am finding precious little of that from the commenters here. Does anyone truly BELIEVE that these people were coming to America because they had nothing better to do? I am not even addressing the legality here. The folks who crossed the border did so to escape a nightmarish situation. Where is the rachmones for them?

(16)
Steven S,
June 22, 2018 3:06 PM

“Nazi-Like”

Let’s just say that separating young children from their parents at the border over a misdemeanor (yes, illegal border crossing is a misdemeanor) is Nazi-like. If this goes unchecked, it will surely lead to more and more Nazi-like policies.

(15)
Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 1:02 PM

No - They are not Nazis -- but there IS a valid comparison

When Jews tried to fell to the US to escape the Nazi Menace, the United States SHUT ITS DOORS. Not even CHILDREN were admitted (the Kinder Transport was to England). The stories of how the State Department DELIBERATELY sought to KEEP JEWS OUT sounds eerily like Sessions statements that people fleeing FOR THEIR LIVES will NOT be granted Asylum. The "defense" of this policy by Administration Officials sounds an AWFUL LOt like the "just following orders" instead of having the moral background to REFUSE to do this.So, the ICE officials are NOT Nazis -- but Trump's behavior (and even his "executive order does NOT address the children already TORN from their parents!!) is NO DIFFERENT from the behavior of those who sought to keep JEWS OUT when they were fleeing for their lives.

Char Annen,
June 23, 2018 5:01 PM

I agree but would like to add something

I agree with anonymous but would like to add that no one is trying to take away or diminish in any way the atrocities of the holocaust. Some Americans have learned from our mistakes and are determined not to repeat them. Had more Americans raised their voices and insisted that our government do the right thing maybe more would have been saved from those atrocities. This is the spirt in which the comparisons have been made. Not in any way out of disrespect.

(14)
Yitzchok Hillel Gruber,
June 22, 2018 5:27 AM

When you talk like a duck

Dear Rav Cooper,
I am an Orthodox Jew as you are, and I take exception to your comments.
When you talk like a duck, all you hear is quack quacking. When you walk like a duck, you probably are a duck.
The issue here is not Trump, since all you hear are the quacks. The issue is his henchmen - Jeff Sessions, who has, without apology, always been a racist, and is in full control of the current travesty . The issue is the treatment of people, including US citizens who are Hispanic, by ICE.
Many of the republicans in Congress stand for a white Christian society, excluding all others.
That we should not equate the current situation with the Holocaust, is a poorly analyzed response.
Nazi Germany had numerous officially sanctioned societal disruptions before Kristallnacht.
Your comment that the OSS should have done more to prevent the Nazis from committing atrocities is well taken, but insufficient. Our Secretary of State, former CIA director, and senator from Kansas, is a white supremacist, and the current CIA director actively participated in water boarding on Afghanistan.
We are proving that it can happen here. The question we should be asking is when.

(13)
Leah,
June 22, 2018 4:56 AM

Yasher Koach Rabbi!

You have so perfectly put into words that so often fail me when I try to tell someone that "this is not like the Holocaust!" President Bush was not like HitlerPresident Trump is not like TrumpDetaining children in separate facilities while parents are being detained is not like the Holocaust! Thank you!

(12)
Regina F Schild,
June 21, 2018 9:33 PM

Well Said

The comparisons with the holocaust are revolting, and what little respect I had for the liberal news commentators has completely evaporated. Chuck Schumer stated out loud that the dems are unwilling to pass any bill to remedy the situation; I say the responsibility lies at their feet.

(11)
Samuel Ramos,
June 21, 2018 9:23 PM

The Utter Hypocrisy And Stupidity Of The Illegal Immigrant Parent-Child Separation Debateby Ben Shapiro1 min readThis is an era of massive hypocrisy.On the one hand, you have the Left arguing that policy must change with regard to family separation at the border. That would be the same Left that argued in 2014 that it was utterly inhumane to keep children locked up with their illegal immigrant parents, and sued to have that policy changed.On the other hand, you have the Trump administration arguing that “zero tolerance” at the border was good policy, and that family separation was merely a byproduct of the legal workings of the system; the Trump administration also argued that they didn’t have the legal authority to unilaterally overrule Ninth Circuit rulings on the Flores settlement. That would be the same Trump administration now arguing that Trump can unilaterally change policy through executive action.On that first hand again, the Left argues that separation policy is essentially Nazi-esque evil. These would be the same people on the Left rejecting a legislative fix in order to “keep the focus” on President Trump, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) so charmingly put it.On that other hand again, the Right argues that separating parents from children is a deterrent, while at the same time arguing that the policy is an Obama holdover for which the Trump administration bears no responsibility.So, here’s the simple reality.The Trump administration did not create separation policy. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did.

Betty,
June 22, 2018 4:55 AM

Finally some truth

It seems the liberals have lost their minds over their hate for Donald Trump! I'm not Jewish, but love the Jewish people and I hope every jew is outraged at the liberals comparison of our current problem to the holocaust! It is a slap in the face to every living jew and the memories of those slaughtered!For one thing the Germans locked up and killed their own people living in their country! We are trying to protect the American people by keeping illegal aliens, drugs, gangs, and terrorists out of our country! If you want to come here do it legally and your children won't be temporarily separated from you! It's called the law. Without it out country will collapse!Liberals want open borders to help their elections!

(10)
Samuel Ramos,
June 21, 2018 9:21 PM

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did.The Trump administration did push a zero-tolerance policy on border crossing, treating all those who enter the country illegally as criminals.The Trump administration does not have the executive authority to unilaterally change law, as ruled by the Ninth Circuit.The policy should be changed, and should never have been discussed as a deterrent.Nobody seems to truly care about any of these facts, or wants to do anything concrete to solve the problem. So, who wins the PR war? The Left, obviously. That’s not because they’re rhetorical geniuses. That’s because it’s almost impossible to roll out a policy as badly as the Trump administration has rolled out it’s zero tolerance policy. First, the administration announced a zero tolerance policy. Then, the administration said that the separation of children from parents was a deterrent. After that, the administration activated morons like Corey Lewandowski to say “womp womp” in front of cameras while discussing the fate of 10-year-olds with Down Syndrome separated from their parents. Meanwhile, the administration claimed that they had no power to change the law, because it was up to the legislature. Then, finally, Trump backed down and signed an executive order — which will likely be overturned by a court.Masterful.

Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 12:47 AM

please learn English

at least as 2nd language after "newspeak". BY any & all definitions a criminal si someone who commits an ILLEGAL act. Crossing the border ILLEGALLY is a CRIME, hence they are CRIMINALS. Their motivations good or evil are irrelevant.

(9)
bob van wagner,
June 21, 2018 7:05 PM

Seperated from families

Families are nice to have. Why then do so many south of the border send their children away from family to cross the border northward into a nation full of the ever rebelious: America? For that is reported case for those chldren held family-less in dentention centers or shipped off to random (yet we hope kind rather than predatory) foster "families" in this northern country: America. We can all remember -- it is easy, for we have he Internet -- that back in in 2014, under Obama (the first Muslim Leader of the Free World, and President of America, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in a most sheker way) -- trains were covered with children precariously perched on rocking and rolling roofs, many without parents. Trains in Mexico! Making their way north to FREEDOM!

The dangers that my children's great grandparents left in Russia in the early 1900's -- sent alone to walk to ports in Poland or Germanym, and then to sail to: America! Those too were families broken. What broke them then? It is the same now! Look for the truth, but it ain't on screen, it;s thrown to the ground. The same media and evil forces that inflames you now, and pulls your ears to falsehood and eyes to great killing slanders eats those southern familes in Central America alive.

Likewise those forces and that media turly destroyed, annihilated, d a few generations of urban American Black families with sadistic and insane social politics and welfare policies, and most important terrifying examples of role models like Murphy Brown, like Oprah: see the Roebling Wire Works mass shooting in urban Trenton last weekend. Why are YOU so gullible to evil reports?

Rachel,
June 22, 2018 8:18 AM

Why you can't be taken seriously

President Obama was not, and is not, a Muslim. Indeed, he took a lot of heat during the campaign for obnoxious comments by his Protestant minister.When you throw in a comment like that, it negates every possibly valid point you made.

andy,
June 22, 2018 11:54 AM

Why you can't be taken seriously.

Accept reality. Obama was born a Muslim, he was raised in Indonesia as a Muslim, he enrolled in college as an Indonesian Muslim exchange as Barry SORETO. (you use an alias & see how soon the IRS shows up). There is no church record of his "Conversion". under Islamic Law a "renegade from Islam is subject to death (fatwa) by anyone, That he was not executed by them, shows clearly & with NO argument that they were clearly aware that he was still a Muslim. Such are authorized to pass as enemy (e.g. Christian, American) to subvert & destroy. He did just that. & only a Kapo would approve.

(8)
Vladimir,
June 21, 2018 6:32 PM

Don't Expropriate the Holocaust?

Hi, I don’t think they try to expropriate the Holocaust, I don’t think they never can do that, that was horrible. But unfortunately people forget how everything start, and start with hate and miss información, I believe the media that use holocaust pictures was to make people think about the past. And I believe that happens. Everything has a message, everything is for good, Hashem is the always good!! Shalom.

(7)
Toby Bulman Katz,
June 21, 2018 6:29 PM

Gestapo killers were nothing like ICE agents

Richard Diamond wrote:"The Nazi atrocities didn't happen all at once but were built on incremental steps.".Those steps included firing Jews from all their jobs, removing Jewish professors and students from the universities, forbidding Germans to go to Jewish doctors, destroying and smashing Jewish shops and places of business, confiscating Jewish property and so on. Something like that is happening in America now?!.Prior to that, Germany had a very long and very deep history of open, rabid anti-Semitic hatred of such viciousness that Americans today can hardly imagine it. It is sad to see that people with apparently Jewish names like "Rebecca" or "Diamond" know so little about their own history that they begin to imagine that ICE agents resemble in any way Gestapo agents..Such a belief -- such horrifying ignorance -- shows that they have no idea what the Gestapo was or what Nazis actually did. It trivializes the Holocaust..Do you see ICE agents at the Mexican border snatching babies from their mothers' arms and then tossing them back and forth like footballs and then slicing them apart with bayonets?! Do you see crowds of regular middle class Americans gathering at the border to cheer and laugh and enjoy the spectacle? .There are hundreds of books about the Holocaust you could have read but apparently our cosseted and clueless young people have read none of them. Start with Richard Goldhagen's chilling book, "Hitler's Willing Executioners."

(6)
Yaakov,
June 21, 2018 6:12 PM

What about if it was you on the border

Perhaps comparing the circumstances of the immigrants on the border with the tragic history of WWII genocide is not accurate. However, if you were on the border as an immigrant searching for a better life for your family; if you were descendant of some of the native nations divided by the imperialism and colonialism of the American Democracy you worship; if those were your own children at the border, I am sure you will call the current administration by many names, including Nazi. The racism and ethnic prejudice and genocide suffered by our people is in many ways similar in its early days to what these communities on the border are facing today. You are right, we cannot ignore it. We, Jewish people, cannot be silent. We cannot become so comfortable to ignore the pains of others and to make of American Democracy an idol, just like many Jewish people did in Germany and other nations during WWII, until the tragedy of genocide and the evil of violence and prejudice touched them too close. May the Eternal One have mercy and give peace to the Jewish people and to every nation. After all, there is only One G_d and one world of humans created in the image of the Almighty. Shalom

Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 12:12 AM

thank you

You are a sane; true Jewish Mensch.

Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 12:52 AM

WHERE do you live?

Not in the United States. I live here & this is a REPUBLIC. So either you live in somewhere else or are too ignorant to know what our government is.

Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 5:10 AM

Angry

In not Jewish, but your comment makes me very angry! The Jewish people did absolutely nothing to bring on what happened to them! NOTHING This problem absolutely does not even come close to comparing the two.We are trying to keep thousands of illegal aliens, drugs, gang members, and terrorists out of our country! These same mothers being separated from their children can avoid that by doing it the right way!If we don't follow the law we have no country to come to!

(5)
Barajas,
June 21, 2018 6:01 PM

The biggest evilness that a person can do to another person is to convince that you have needs, it grinds my gears! Politicians, religions, and crime are all talking about how to convince you to have more needs. The reason these people immigrate is because politicians, psychologists, businesses, media and popular culture are convincing us that we have needs these people immigrate because society is
convencing them of that. Convincing people that they have needs is just as evil as to what happened in the Holocaust! We have no needs we are needed. What do you discover if you dont have needs? Life, we are convinced that life is real! Lets participate in the creation to create life! People are not convinced that life is real and every monster is telling you that you need. You dont need anything!

(4)
Richard Diamond,
June 21, 2018 4:31 PM

The Path to Aushwitz

The Nazi atrocities didn't happen all at once but were built on incremental steps. We see in the hateful immigration actions of the Trump administration the same early steps of Hitler.Turning ICE agents into America';s Gestapo is chilling! Trump's BIG lies aimed at his loyal followers echo Hitler's rants to his loyal Nazi's. "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

(3)
Toby Bulman Katz,
June 21, 2018 4:10 PM

Do not distort historical truth

Rebecca wrote:'The holocaust didn't begin with death camps - it began with dehumanizing the "other." Make no mistake that that is exactly what is happening in America right now. '.Make no mistake, that is exactly what is NOT happening in America right now. Please, this kind of overwrought attitudinizing is exactly what we don't need. We need to have a civilized conversation about policy, balancing the need to defend our borders with the moral necessity to be humane and compassionate..If there had been a massive outcry against the mistreatment of Jews in 1920's Germany, the Holocaust could never have happened. Almost the entire population of Germany (and Poland, and Ukraine, and and and...) were willing accomplices in the murder of Jews. It takes an extraordinary historical ignorance to say that what happened in Germany before the war is "what's happening now in America.".We Jews need to have hakaras hatov -- gratitude -- to this country, that allows us an unprecedented degree of freedom, including the freedom to freely express political opinions. .Ingratitude is not a Jewish value, and distortion of truth is not a Jewish value..Compassion is a Jewish value. Gratitude is a Jewish value. Truth is a Jewish value.

(2)
Rebecca,
June 21, 2018 3:48 PM

Many of these comparisons to the holocaust are wrong and I speak out against them when I see them. However, we also need to be vigilant. The holocaust didn't begin with death camps - it began with dehumanizing the "other." Make no mistake that that is exactly what is happening in America right now. The path to the holocaust was a series of small steps - we need to speak out NOW and put a stop to this before God forbid the worst happens again. We as Jews have a special responsibility here. We know what can happen when human beings are otherized and we lose our empathy. Please if you are in America help stop this madness now before it's too late.

Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 5:23 AM

Really??

We are not dehumanizing anyone! We are trying to protect our borders!! These people are trying to break the law by coming here illegally!!! They can do it the right way and not be separated!Trump is trying to keep out drugs, terrorists, gangs, and crime! Who do you think pays for all the illegal aliens? The taxpayer!Wake up and stop listening to the liberal media! They have no respect for God!! They have a problem with kids being separated from their mothers, but have NO problems with babies being ripped from their mothers wombs and then sold for their body parts! Hypocrites!!!!

rachok,
June 22, 2018 6:48 AM

Really??

I don't need to listen to the "liberal media" to understand this issue. All I have to do is read the inaccurate posts by people like you, your words drip with hatred trying to defend the indefensible. People who respect G-d don't treat the stranger in our midst as Trump is doing.

Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 11:59 AM

What hate?

How is it hate to protect one's family, people & country from criminal invaders? If those criminals are so worthy, move there & "preach" peace & joy & have your burial insurance paid up.

andy,
June 22, 2018 11:03 PM

Totah

Is very explicit that we have an obligation to protect those that depend on us, children, elderly, employees, livestock. An concern for others is far far secondary to keeping "ours" safe. We do not need 100s of 1000s of imported criminals doing more damage to us & our nation. & these foreign criminals are not "goyim within".

(1)
Shira Barrett,
June 21, 2018 3:04 PM

Thank you for speaking out. We now have over 2000 orphans

We must do what we can for these “strangers in our midst. Baruch HaShem the children can be reunited with their families.

Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 12:13 AM

true

I thank you; for you know the true teachings of Judaism

Anonymous,
June 22, 2018 12:01 PM

families?

It is well established, that 100s or more do not come with parents. but with drug smugglers for cover or human traffickers. All criminal. Learn read, then work on comprehending reality.